Belonging & Heimat Colloquium No. 2

Scholars from Germany and the UK met 20-21 May 2010 at the Lincoln Theological Institute at the University of Manchester for the second meeting of the Belonging & Heimat Project. Plans are now in place to publish the papers presented at the Colloquium. Financial assistance was provided by the Trustees of the Lincoln Theological Institute and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, which is gladly acknowledged here.

Fascinatingly Disturbing

Dr. Michael Hoelzl has contributed to a newly released book on Michael Haneke's work entitled, Fascinatingly Disturbing: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Michael Haneke's Cinema, edited by Alexander D. Ornella and Stefanie Knauss. Here's a brief extract from the back cover:

Michael Haneke is one of Europe’s most successful and controversial film directors. Awarded the Palme d’Or and numerous other international awards, Haneke has contributed to and shaped contemporary auteur cinema and is becoming more and more popular among academics and cinephiles. His mission is as noble as it is provocative: he wants to "rape the audience into independence," to wake them up from the lethargy caused by the entertainment industry. e lmic language he employs in this mission is both highly characteristic and ecient, and yet his methods are open to criticism for their violence toward and manipulation of the audience. e aim of this book is to analyze critically Haneke’s aesthetics, his message, as well as his ethical motivation from an interdisciplinary and intercultural perspective. Contributors to the book come from a variety of academic disciplines and cultural backgrounds-European and North American.

Engaging Society: Reassessing Anglican Social Ethics (6-8 Sept, 2010)

The recent publication of The Children Society’s report A Good Childhood has provided a contemporary example of an older approach to social issues in which faith communities interact with specialists in different field and arrive at policy recommendations which are general enough to receive widespread support while specific enough to make an impact on government and churches, who must work out the detail of how to put them into practice (in the past these policy recommendations have been called ‘middle axioms’). This was the approach brought to prominence by William Temple in his highly influential Christianity and Social Order of 1942.  It also found expression in Faith in the City, the influential report of 1985.  The publication of A Good Childhood suggests that this approach still has mileage.  Is this the case?

Click to read more ...

LTI Newsletter Spring 2010

Welcome to the Spring 2010 issue of the Institute’s newsletter. Much has happened at the Institute since the last newsletter was published in summer 2009. As I write, advanced preparations are underway to host the second, international, colloquium of the Belonging & Heimat project at the University of Manchester in May and a rough cut of the LTI climate change film, ‘Beyond the Tipping Point?” is being produced. There is more information on both these developments, and the recent Divinity after Empire meeting in Bangalore, elsewhere in this newsletter. A number of publications by members of the Institute have also appeared; please see inside for more details.I hope the activities presented here catch your interest. Click here to read more...

CLIMATE CHANGE & ETHICS

Lincoln Theological Institute Director Peter Scott speaks at the annual conference of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics to be held on 3-5 September 2010 at Westcott House, Cambridge. This year's theme is 'Theological Reflections on Climate Change'. To register, visit www.ssce.org.uk

Belonging & Heimat Symposium No. 2

The second international meeting of the Belonging & Heimat project, hosted by the Lincoln Theological Institute, takes place at the University of Manchester, 20-21st May 2010.  Bringing together scholars from Germany and UK, the symposium will explore the themes of place and belonging from a range of perspectives, including philosophy, ecology and theology. The project is directed by John Rodwell, Honorary Research Fellow at LTI, and is supported by the Jean Monnet Centre for Excellence.